Part 4 (1/2)

ESTHER.

When the Sabbath has already begun?

SACHEL.

Well, what do we have this Christian for? Rosa!

_Enter ROSA._

ESTHER.

Rosa, open this letter and read it.

ROSA.

[_Reading._] ”I shall be at your house to-night, on a matter of business.--AARON HEINE.” [_Exit ROSA._

SACHEL.

Business? What business can he have with me?

ESTHER.

His daughter, I think. There was something in the way he spoke that made me feel it!

SACHEL.

To marry his Rebecca to my son. H'm! I'll make him speak first. I'll worry him! I'll make him sweat.

ESTHER.

Rosa! Put up the shutters.

SACHEL.

I will not trust her to put up the shutters.

ESTHER.

You never had a better servant in your house.

SACHEL.

[_Fetches shutters and awkwardly adjusts them._] She is a Christian.

It is bad luck--it was wrong for us to take her in.

ESTHER.

You were glad enough to have her. Would a Jewess light your fire on Sabbath--would a Jewess open your letters for you? Shall I send her away?